You have your database full of contacts and are in the midst of preparing an email to them. But what product/service are you going to sell to them? Not all contacts should be treated equal; each one has different needs. You need to tailor your emails and content offerings to each customer and their buying persona.

To create your buying personas and segmented content for your database, work through the steps and ask yourself some of the qualifier questions.

1. Research their demographics

Review your contacts demographic details to help identify your buying personas. How old are they? What is their buying timeline and budget? What is their job title and role? Where do they live and within what industry do they work?

For example, an airline carrier can segment their customer base into two groups: 1) business travelers and 2) leisure travelers.

2. Determine their needs and shopping behaviors

Many companies define a buying persona incorrectly; they define it right after collecting and segmenting the demographic data from their database. This incorrect way does not allow you to gather the most valuable aspect of the buying persona – you still need to identify their needs, pain points and behavioral patterns to create a relevant, specific messaging for them. Once these are identified, you can create segmented content around specific pain points for different personas. You should be able to determine what your buyers expect from your service/product. You can do this several ways. Here are just two options:

Review your web analytics data for common searched key phrases. What are they searching for? Web analytics software, such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics can help you review your key phrases. For example, let’s say that your web analytics data shows the following search phrases:

Key Phrases:

cheap flights

cheap flights europe

Airbnb Europe

hostels in Europe

cheap car rental

Marriott rewards

Review your key phrases for any common terms.

Analyze your web analytics data to identify their click path: check which offers they clicked, which product criteria has the most impressions, where visitors drop off and where they abandon the booking process. Are there any cross-sell opportunities for package deals?

Ask yourself other qualifying questions to gain a better understanding of your customers needs, and better yet, what they don’t need. Do they book online or in travel agencies? Do you interact with them on blogs, search engines, social media? Do they prefer to read print catalogues or online resources? Do they read their emails on their desktop or mobile phone? Are they returning visitors or are they new to your website?

This behavioral intelligence will help you craft meaningful content to sell to your prospects and customers.

3. Create targeted messaging variations

So, after analyzing the key search terms and click paths on your website, you will be able to add a behavioral layer to your segment-based buying persona. This might look something like this:

Business traveler interested in direct flights and upgrades

Leisure traveler looking for inexpensive flights to Europe

Business traveler interested in a flight and car rental package deal

Leisure traveler interested in cheap lodging options in Europe

With this quantitative and qualitative data of your buying persona identified, you will be able to create the following messaging variations:

It’s also important to do an A/B testing on content from the defined messaging framework. Even if the most obvious wording will work best, you will gain valuable insight from the testing as well. So, bringing this messaging to life for our two buying personas, we could look at the following variations for a promotional email:

Persona 1 – A potential lead seeking business class upgrades to Europe and a suitable lodging option. Include a cross-sell offer for a rental car.
Example subject line – “Fly direct to Munich and upgrade for only 149 Euros”

Persona 2 – A potential lead looking for an inexpensive flight. Include a cross-sell offer for a bed and breakfast.
Example subject line – “Reserve now: worldwide flights at a great price”

The clearer you are on who downloads and reads your content, and at what point in their buying process, the better you can satisfy their needs and sell to them at the correct point.